"Cultivate happiness!" I said briefly to the doctor : "Do you cultivate Happiness? How do you manage?"..... happiness is not a potato to be planted in moulds, and trilled with manure.Charlotte Bronte, Villette
Charlotte Bronte makes her point with great wit, yet it would be a pity to under estimate the minds power of transformation. If we try resolutely over the course of years to master out thoughts as they come to us, it apply appropriate antidotes to negative emotions and to nurture positive ones, our efforts will undoubtedly yield results that would have seemed unattainable at first. We marvel at the idea of an athlete being able to clear a eight foot high jump, and if we haven't seen it on television we wouldn't believe it possible, since we know that most of us can barely clear four. When it comes to physical performance we soon run into limitations, but the mind is far more flexible. Why, for instance, should there be any limit to love or to compassion? We may have varied dispositions to cultivate these human qualities, but we all have the potential to progress continually throughout our lives, through persistent efforts.
Oddly, many modern thinkers are, in the word of one french author, dead set against " the construction of the self as a never ending task." if we were forced on principles to give up every long term project, the very concepts of apprenticeship, education, culture, or self improvement would become meaning less. Leaving aside the spiritual path, why bother reading books, undertaking scientific research, learning about the world? the acquisition of knowledge is never ending task too. We accept that but neglect our own transformation, which determines the quality of our lived experience? is it better just to allow ourself to drift? isn't that how we crash on the rock?
